We can now crack straight into setting up the narrative tension of ROTK, which features Sauron as the villain. The choice was made on the basis that most people will assume that Saruman was vanquished by the Helm's Deep events, and Ent attack. "We reluctantly made the decision to save this sequence for the DVD. We felt it got Return Of The King off to an uncertain beginning, since Saruman plays no role in the events of ROTK (we don't have the Scouring later, as the book does), yet we dwell in Isengard for quite a long time before our new story kicks off. "The trouble is, when we viewed various ROTK cuts over the last few weeks, it feels like the first scenes are wrapping last year's movie, instead of starting the new one. Since The Two Towers couldn't sustain a seven-minute 'wrap' after Helm's Deep, we thought it would be a good idea to save it for the beginning of the Return of the King.
Jackson told Ain't It Cool News: "The problem is that the sequence was originally shot for The Two Towers, as it is in the book. By Ben Hardwick Published Throughout the numerous behind-the-scenes featurettes released for The Lord of the Rings trilogy, it's clear the movies were a passion project for all involved. But he insisted the move was a purely directorial decision to improve the movie's pacing and promised that the scenes would be reinstated for the by now customary extended DVD version. Not only did Christopher Lee perfectly portray the character of Saruman in The Lord of the Rings, he did it out of his sheer love for the books.